At the time, Meyer wouldn’t elaborate on why Dowling was dismissed, saying only that he violated team rules.

After committing to Western Kentucky over the weekend, though, Dowling told Rivals.com that it came down to a conflict with his position coach, Chuck Heater.

“I don’t do everything right,” Dowling told Rivals. “I’m not an angel, but I feel like they could’ve done a lot more things to help me instead of trying to break me down. That was a lot of problems I got into with my position coach. With him, it was never, ‘Good play, you did good,’ it was always, ‘Why the ‘F’ did you do this or why did you do that?’ There were never positive things coming from him. For the first time in my life, that affected me and made me not like football. I had to get away from that.”

Dowling admitted to skipping practice.

Reflecting on four years with Heater, senior SS Ahmad Black said in November that each day was tough but made him better. He joked the he couldn’t remember a day “when there wasn’t a ‘Come to Jesus’ meeting” and credited Heater with helping him mature on and off the field.

“That’s my guy. I can call coach about anything, whether it’s 3 o’clock in the morning, 4 o’clock in the morning,” Black said before Senior Day. “I wish I could take him with me.”